HANGAR OF THE PONY EXPRESS

1356 HOURS

Captain Charles D. Kenwood (00531-72005-CK), who was in charge of flying the Express, was awaiting Aaron’s arrival in the hangar bay right next to the Pelican that was equipped with the new Shaw-Fujikawa slipspace model that would hopefully allow the gunship to enter slipspace on its own.

Kenwood had very short white hair and light hazel eyes. His caucasian white skin was a bit wrinkled and droopy, and contained a few liver spots from age. He may have been old, but that didn't mean he lost his skills and wits as a captain and battle tactician.

Kenwood began his Naval Captain career back in 2529 when he was thirty years old, and continued his service as one ever since.

He has heard that one of his fellow captains, Andrew Del Rio was forced to step down as captain of the Infinity after carelessly leaving Spartan John-117 on Requiem with his deteriorating AI companion, Cortana.

What damaged Del Rio’s career even more is that the Ur-Didact which John warned him about, managed to reach Earth and kill all of the residents living in the city of New Phoenix, Arizona.

Kenwood knew that Del Rio was a good leader, but he also knew that he kind of had an arrogant ego throughout his entire life. He could also be labeled as a coward as well. If he was an honorable captain, he would gladly accept his fate and go down with his ship if it was in trouble.

That’s what made Captain Jacob Keyes of the UNSC Halcyon-class cruiser, Pillar of Autumn one of the most famous and memorable captains in the entire UNSC Navy. He perished at the hands of the Flood on Alpha Halo (Installation Zero-Four). He was soon joined by his daughter, Commander Miranda Keyes when the head hierarch of the Covenant who went by the name of Truth, murdered her on The Ark by shooting her in the spine with a  T25 C; better known under the formal name of Spiker which was mostly wielded by Brutes on the battlefield.

Last on the list is Sergeant Major, Avery Junior Johnson who was killed by the rampant monitor of Alpha Halo, 343 Guilty Spark, after attempting to activate the incomplete replacement Halo ring.

Johnson was one of the best and most courageous sergeants that the UNSC has lost, and like the others, they were never forgotten.

After about a few moments, Kenwood caught a glimpse of Aaron making his approach toward him already in his armor. He carried his helmet in his left hand.

Aaron’s SPARTAN-IV MJOLNIR GEN2 armor suit consisted of the various armor parts:

* Aviator for the torso.

* Soldier for the left shoulder while the right one is Defender.

* GV-09 Lockin for the forearms.

* LG-50 Bulk for the legs.

* Scanner for the helmet.

His primary armor and helmet color was sort of a tanish hue, while the secondary smaller splotches of color that varied on his suit were light yellow. His helmets visor color was a verdant green.

The emblem that was on his left shoulder pad was a horse which symbolized his membership to Mustang. The skin of the horse was painted a darker tan and the mane was a darker yellow so both wouldn’t blend into the suits’ colors.

The background for the emblem was a dark brown hat.

Aaron was no cowboy, but it did sort of symbolize his days as a young corn farmer. Another fact is that he didn’t have any sort of southern or cowboy accent because he grew up in the Northern-Midwestern regions.

When Aaron reached the captain, he stopped in a designated distance of two feet from the captain, stood in an authoritative posture, then saluted the captain with his designated right hand.

“Sir,” Aaron said.

Kenwood smiled and returned the salute.

“At ease, Spartan,” Kenwood said.

Aaron stopped saluting and placed both hands behind him as he awaited instructions and intel.

“So Spartan, do you feel ready for your task?” Kenwood asked without a hint of emotion in his voice.

“As ready as I’ll ever be, sir,” Aaron replied  without breaking eye-contact with the captain.

Kenwood smirked.

“Good. Now, I should tell you we can’t be certain of how effective this new slipspace technology is, or if it will even work properly. If it fails during the charge up, or has some sort of malfunction before a jump, the results may be fatal. You’re aware of that right?”

“Yes, sir,” Aaron replied unfazed by the unfortunate information.

“I suggest you take note of your starting position before you jump so you can find your way back if you are successful; and send me the coordinates of your intended vector. That way we can find you no matter what the result is. Understood?”

“Understood.”

“Excellent. The only thing we can do now is wish you luck. You’ll need it,” Kenwood said saluting once more.

“I don’t believe in luck sir. I just make my own,” Aaron replied with a cocky smirk as he returned the salute.

Kenwood chuckled a bit.

“That attitude what made me choose you for this test. Always having to be strong-headed. It’s what I look for in soldiers like you,” Kenwood said one final time before heading off back to the bridge of the corvette.

Aaron put his helmet on and began to climb into the cockpit of the Pelican.

For safety measures incase he wound up on some uncharted or Covenant infested world, he armed himself with the standard MA5D-ICWS assault rifle, and the MGH sidearm as backup.

Sure he didn’t equip his signature M45D into his weapon system, but he couldn’t risk engaging any hostiles in open and long range areas. Scenarios like that will render shotguns as useless or not very effective, so it’s best to come prepared with weapons within the ranges of medium to long.

His shotgun would really be useful if he landed on the planet of Te for instance where the Lekgolo worms colonize and reproduce.

Sure they seem harmless when they're just acting like regular worms, but when they merge together to create Mgalekgolo, they can become extremely dangerous, especially when they’re transformed into deadly armored Hunters.

Aaron has showed down these behemoths multiple times just like other soldiers throughout the entire Human-Covenant war, but what really is amazing is that he is one of the few marines to take down a Hunter at a dangerously close range, and its all thanks to his experience and great aiming with a shotgun.

When Aaron successfully managed to get out of the way from a strike of a Hunter’s melee attack, he immediately set his sight on an open gap on the Hunters’ back that allowed access to the squirming orange creatures that resided within.

With only seconds to spare, Aaron shoved the weapon as deep as he could into the cluster and pulled the trigger which caused a bunch of orange blood to splatter and stain Aaron’s body, and the Hunter to cry in agony as it keeled over and fell to the ground, motionless.

Getting close, sidestepping it, then shooting it in the back before it could recover to go in for another blow. This was an effective, but highly risky tactic if there wasn’t any heavy weapon around to take down a Hunter.

When Aaron got himself secured in the seat of the cockpit, he closed the hatch over his head and started up the engines for take off.

All nearby personnel and crew cleared room as the droning of the dropships’ engines became louder and louder. Light blue flames ignited from the bottom area’s of  the wings as the Pelican slowly and steadily separated itself from the floor of the hangar.

When Aaron cleared enough space between his Pelican and the ground, he flipped a switch on one of the panels that would change the Pelican from lift off/landing  mode to flight mode.

When this happened, the wings of the Pelican rotated from angled to flat , and the small blue flames that appeared under the wings and tail shifted to the back side to give the dropship the thrust it needed to fly forward.

Aaron flew the Pelican through the hangars’ airtight shielding system that allowed UNSC spacecraft vehicles to enter or exit, but kept the vacuum of space out. This was one of the technologies that the UNSC Navy took pride in.

When Aaron cleared enough room between him and the Express, Captain Kenwood contacted Aaron via a VidCom system that was equipped with all SPARTAN-IV’s.

The face of Kenwood appeared on a small screen that appeared on the upper lefthand corner of Aaron’s helmet heads-up display (HUD) system.

“How’s your bird working out so far?” Kenwood asked.

“So far so good, sir,” Aaron replied. “She’s flying just like she should.”

“Excellent, then that means that the model isn’t affecting the flight pattern in anyway?”

“Affirmative for now. Who knows what will happen through when I initiate the jump sequence.”

“There’s only one way to find out son,” Kenwood replied nodding his head with a determined yet concerned look on his face.

“Whatever happens, it’s been an honor serving with you captain,” Aaron said with a confident smile forming on his mouth. It was truly unbelievable that Aaron wasn’t showing fear for a possible demise, but that’s how all Spartan’s like him were.

“Likewise, Spartan. Pony Express out,” Kenwood said and signed off which made the screen flatten itself out before vanishing in an instant.

When Aaron got his Pelican at a minimum safe distance from the Express to avoid damaging it from a slipspace EMP shockwave, he sent his current starting location to the Express like he was ordered to and then entered a very complex set of slipspace coordinates to the drive that was acquired with the Pelican’s systems. He then send a copy of the coordinates to the Express as well.

As soon a he sent his vector, Kenwood radioed in once more.

“Uh Spartan. Are you sure you wish to travel to these coordinates that you just sent me?” Kenwood asked obviously a little concerned with Aaron’s choice of destination. “I mean we don’t know if this kind of slipspace model is suited to travel this distance.”

“I’m very sure sir,” Aaron replied casually. “We need to know how much this model can take, and the only way to do that is to take the limits to their utmost extreme. Surely some kind of benefit can come from that.”

Kenwood placed his hand under his chin to think for a moment about what Aaron just told him. He knew that Aaron was an excellent soldier, and the most ballsiest  which did give Kenwood concernment. But if Aaron was sure about what he was doing, then there really was no point in argument. This was for the greater good of all the UNSC.

“Just be careful son; and if you do make it, contact me ASAP,” Kenwood ordered.

“Yes sir,” Aaron replied before the captains face disappeared once again on Aaron’s HUD.

Aaron powered up the terminal to the Shaw Fujikawa slipspace drive by entering the designated coordinates into the system before flipping on the power switch.

A slight whirring sound could be heard emanating from around the Pelican as the slipspace drive charged up.

There was a slight bit of turbulence as well. This may cause a bit of concern for most because most ships that are suited for slipspace travel don’t encounter turbulence. What’s bizarre is that there is no wind in space to cause such a phenomenon. Aaron just believed that it was a new feeling to get used too when a Pelican was about to jump.  

Several seconds went by before a distortion ripple in space appeared in front of  Aaron’s Pelican before it turned into a medium-sized slipspace portal.

It was a two-dimensional swirling mass of light and particles with a black dot in the center. You could say it had the characteristics of a black hole, but without the gravity forcefully pulling your craft in. There was still the worry of being ripped apart through if your craft wasn’t suited for such extreme space travel.

“Here we go,” Aaron thought as he and his Pelican entered the swirling void and vanished from real-space leaving Kenwood and all hands aboard the Pony Express to wonder if they succeeded, or worthlessly sacrificed the life of an excellent Spartan like Aaron.

The questioning if all Spartans having good luck will be sorely tested, just like how John’s was when he was on Requiem.

It’s really hard to tell if Aaron was one of the Spartans that were blessed with this sort of luck, even though he didn’t believe in it. He just believed that whatever happens, just happens; nothing more than that.

Aaron should be grateful though because as he exited slipspace, he and his Pelican were still in one piece, but not all was well.

When he exited out of the portal, all of the Pelican’s systems and engines immediately lost power. The systems on his HUD were disabled as well.

Something about making such a long and risky jump into slipspace has damaged all electronic systems in the Pelican, and Aaron’s armor system leaving him blind to location data, and COMM access to the Express.

As a result, Aaron is drifting powerlessly through uncharted and unknown regions of space. Such a scenario like this will leave Aaron fighting for his life until all food and water rations run out which Aaron didn’t even bother to pack cutting his survival time in half. Also that the extreme jump has made Aaron lose consciousness.

Fortunately through, Aaron’s Pelican is heading for a lively planet that seems to closely resemble Earth, even though Aaron didn’t program in the sector where Earth resides.

Whatever planet it is, it has life and resources that Aaron needs to survive before he can be found; or until he can get his Pelican back up and running to return to the Express himself.

Aaron isn’t sure what lives on this planet, but he hopes it’s humanity and not Covenant infested.

What he will find on this planet through is something that he, or the rest of humanity would never thought possible; or for that matter even exist.